Day 24 - Spectre (2015) - Film Review

Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux & Naomie Harris

Screenplay: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan & Jez Butterworth

Directed By: Sam Mendes

Certificate: 12

Coming down off the immense high of Bond's 50th was always going to be a challenge, so attaching Sam Mendes to direct once again is a reassuring move. Plus if you're familiar with the early Bond films, that title is a tantalizing confirmation of some old foes returning. Following the death of the previous M, she leaves a posthumous message for Bond to kill a terrorist and prevent a deadly bombing in Mexico City. After completing his task but without clearance from MI6, Bond is soon grounded and forbidden from leaving the country. Disobeying these instructions, he attends the slain terrorist's funeral in Rome, and ends up following a trail of breadcrumbs to a vast criminal organization... SPECTRE. 

While reception towards 'Spectre' is generally lukewarm, there's little denying that it gets off to an incredible start. With this and the last film, it would appear that Mendes has the art of the opening mastered by now, and setting this one in a Day of the Dead festival in Mexico is both thematically relevant as will later become clear, and gives 'Spectre' its own distinctive look early on. The scale of this opening, the ridiculously large number of people present and the commitment to that one continuous shot look is staggering. The amount of planning that must've gone into achieving it almost unfathomable, and Mendes would only go on to outdo himself with '1917'. I'd have been content finishing the opening sequence with Bond assassinating his terrorist targets, but even then it keeps going. It adds a whole building collapsing, and even a mostly practical fight set in an out-of-control helicopter. It's amazing and I struggle to find fault with anything in this first twelve minutes. In fact the only thing that I feel slightly undercuts it is the theme that follows by Sam Smith: 'Writing's On The Wall'. Despite being only the second Bond theme to win Best Song at the Oscars (after Adele's 'Skyfall'), I remember feeling pretty deflated when I first listened to it. It's not a bad theme and I actually think Smith's vocal performance is terrific. But especially after such an opening, it feels like 'Spectre' was calling for a theme with more bombast. I once heard it described as sounding like a stripped back cover of a song that was originally more dramatic, and I couldn't put it any better myself.

One thing I do really appreciate about 'Spectre' and about Daniel Craig's run of films in general is the commitment to its own continuity. After Sean Connery's run, most Bond films were more or less standalone and accessible in any order you liked. While this approach isn't without merit, like I said in my 'Casino Royale' review, it's a nice change of pace to return to the more interconnected, ongoing story arcs. 'Skyfall' was a bit more standalone admittedly, but 'Spectre' returns to this continuity in a big way. The new M, Moneypenny and Q are all still here and I quite like this new MI6 family we've formed. The original MI6 building is still in ruins after its destruction in the last film, and in the opening credits we're even given flashbacks to characters like Vesper, Le Chiffre, Silva and Judi Dench's M (although not much from 'Quantum Of Solace', though I can see why). It all feels as though it's been building towards 'Spectre', and it's rewarding knowing that Le Chiffre, Quantum and Silva were all in league with and leading up to the big, bad SPECTRE.

SPECTRE's return is something I was so glad to see, and I love that they've not lost any of their flair for the dramatic. Of course wherever SPECTRE is around, so too is Mr Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and speaking of the dramatic his introduction is brilliant. Secluded in shadow, barely saying a word and with everyone immediately going quiet and standing up upon his arrival - it's so silly yet dramatic at the same time and it just works. So who do we have playing our new Blofeld? Well here we have arguably our best casting since Donald Pleasence, with Christoph Waltz taking up the role. If you want a big baddie that effortlessly walks the line between intimidating and camp, Waltz is your man and he doesn't let the side down. Similarly well cast is Dave Bautista as one of SPECTRE's mostly silent henchmen. Until he came along I hadn't really noticed the lack of henchmen in the past few films, but Bautista's appearance was a welcome surprise. Mr Hinx is built like a brick sh*thouse too. He feels like a force of nature, and his fistfights with Bond put me in mind of the days where James would go toe-to-toe against the towering Jaws.

However, the SPECTRE organization's return while great to see does also bring with it some things that I'm not particularly fond of. For instance, Blofeld is no longer just some mysterious cat-stroking scarred villain, as 'Spectre' presents a fresh take on him where he's more closely linked with Bond. I've no issue with Blofeld being the mastermind behind the villains of the last few films, but I'm not so keen on the idea of his and Bond's childhoods being so intricately linked. Having it turn out that Bond is Blofeld's foster brother, and that he was raised by Blofeld's father after the death of his own parents is a bit much for me. With one brother being a top secret agent, and the other being a criminal mastermind too - it all just sounds a bit too much like poor, clichéd fanfiction to me, and is taking the idea of Blofeld being the "author" of Bond's pain too far.

Something else that gets carried over from 'Skyfall' is the continued exploration into this argument of Bond being obsolete in a modern age. We've seen Judi Dench's M giving speeches defending Bond from these accusations, and here that debate takes the form of an all-out villain in Andrew Scott's C. Scott is excellent as C, and you know from his very first scene that this is a character to be wary of. Originally I felt the subplot of C trying to get Britain to join a global surveillance network was a bit too disconnected from the main action with Bond investigating SPECTRE. But to its credit, the two link together nicely once it turns out that C is another of SPECTRE's glove puppets. It also makes sense that SPECTRE would be behind it given the terrible things an organization like that could do with a global surveillance network in their hands. 

Lastly it's also worth talking about Bond himself and where we stand with him by the end of the film. I continue to have no qualms whatsoever with Craig, and his Bond is paired up with Dr. Madeleine Swann for much of the second half of the film. The daughter of Mr White (who also makes a return here), oddly I don't have a great deal to say about her. While Lea Seydoux is fine in the role, there wasn't much about Swann that I felt I hadn't already seen before. Even Mr White's dying wish, asking Bond to protect her, doesn't feel like especially new territory as Bond has been tasked with this before, protecting Elektra in 'The World Is Not Enough'. This wouldn't usually be much of a problem, but the end of the film sees Bond refusing to kill Blofeld, throwing away his gun and leaving with Swann. The implication seems to be that Bond is done with this life, and after taking the Aston Martin DB5 again from Q, he and Swann leave. This might've been a fitting ending but I never really got the sense that their relationship was that strong, and that Bond would be willing to commit like he did with Vesper. It felt a lot more plausible in 'Casino Royale', but not so much here. But seeing as Craig, and to my surprise Seydoux are both signed up to appear in 'No Time To Die', and after what seemed to be a pretty conclusive ending, maybe their next appearance will be enough to change my mind on that.

So that concludes 'Spectre' and y'know if it hadn't directly followed 'Skyfall', I feel the general response would've been kinder. It's a difficult job to follow up what might be one of the best films in a series and capture that lightning in a bottle again. But to be fair, I think 'Spectre' does a good job for the most part. It's a more flawed film than 'Skyfall' no doubt - it's not as well-paced for one thing and it does feel about fifteen minutes too long as a result. But the production values remain just as strong, it offers some fantastic action sequences and marks the culmination of almost the past ten years' worth of films. Now with 'No Time To Die' being pushed back to 2021, this is the last Bond film I have to review on this marathon, but I'm not done with the series just yet. So check back for one more time tomorrow where I'll be wrapping up these reviews and ranking every single Bond movie.

7/10

NEXT TIME - Conclusion + Movie Rankings